f13.net

Is this out today or tomorrow?

EB said shipping. But not sure if it means stores will have it today. That way I could save myself a trip tomorrow.

Reviews please.

God I hope so. If it is half as cool as it sounds, it will be a blast.

I'll be doing a more 'official' review. As for all you fuckers who already got it. Plz choke on the manual.

I didn't even want to make a trip to the store for fear it'd be sold out and/or not in stock yet.  Already went through that with Evil Genius a couple months ago, and HL2 will keep me busy for a while anyway (mmm digital distribution and no running from store to store).

It's good. A massive system hog though. ( Running decently on my X800 Pro, Althon 64 3000, 1024 DDR )

Been playing it as a fancy pants Toreador seducing the ladies of the nightclubs and scaring the men into submission. ( Just made myself a ghoul bitch, hah! ) I was pleasantly surprised to find out Troika decided the world of darkness needed to be filled not only with gothangst but also with quite alot of creepyness/horror. There has been more then one occation the game has made me jump. It also does a pretty good job between varying the fights and the time spent talking.

Graphicly the game has nothing on HL2, but it's alot better then most games. Same can be said for sound.



Well, that's all for now. Time spent typing is time that could be spent playing HL2 and Bloodlines.

So, the internet is no problem for you, but phones are a foreign concept?

God I hate phones.

/agree with MrHat.  I have an irrational hatred of phones and believe they should be abolished in favor of email and instant messaging.

Besides which, I've had bad experiences in the past with talking to the goon at the store, being told that the thing I want is there, or will be there on a certain day, and then showing up to have some other goon tell me that no such thing exists as far as he's aware.  Some stores are better than others.  I haven't satisfactorily identified which are the good ones, and tend to be suspicious of all retail outlets as a result.

It's not worth the hassle.  Easier to either wait a week or two to make sure the shelves are well-stocked, or just order it from Amazon.  (Amazon being the next best thing to pure digital delivery.)

What about EB Games? They ship to the online shoppers the same day they ship to their own stores.

Just a note- for all of you who get to play this before I do, and for all of you with a beefy enough PC to really crank up the graphics, please know that I hold you in the lowest possible esteem, and hope that you are soon suffering from a fatal case of genital warts.

Amazon does free shipping.  Cheapness for the win.

Now why are you dragging schild's genital warts into this? That cream supposedly helped.

WayAbvPar = That's just cruel man

Game report: My ghoul is turning batshit crazy. She's taken the habit of beating people uncounsious and locking them up in my bathroom, guess it's just her trying to make sure there's always a meal waiting for me at home but damn...

The more I hear about this the more I want to play.  Damn.

I sure hope someone makes a Co-Op MOD for this game the way one was made for Deus Ex.  The lack of multiplayer support really shortens a title's shelf-life and that has me worried.

I'd rather more companies focused on making the single player game worth a shit than just tacking on some half assed multiplayer mode that I'll never play because I'm old, have shitty gaming reflexes now, and don't relish being a target with legs for 12 year olds.

Do one thing and do it well.  I'd rather have CS for my multiplayer and HL2 for my single-player than two games that do both things half-assedly.

While I do agree with you that companies should make compelling offline products, a MP aspect is almost a requisite for FPS-type games to survive beyond the 3-month window of their release.  Since this game leans heavily toward a FPS slant, the game will be won within a few weeks of play and retire to the recesses of unused shelf-space for most of us.

If a Co-Op MOD was incorporated, it'd be fun to see how multiple Vampire Clans interact with one another when controlled by players (Will a Tremere/Gangrel combo work best to solve this problem or will two rabid Nosferatus be better off turning the entire scene into a abbatoir?).

Since the game is missing some of the cooler Vampire Clans, it'd be cool to be able to add them in and modify how their new playing styles will affect the game beyond what was originally implemented (on a strict dev-time budget).

Deus Ex pulled this off surprisingly well and, with one player assuming the role of a Hacker/Stealth protagonist while the other blasts in with guns drawn, the game was actually quite more enjoyable than it was originally intended to be (and the original was one of the BEST games I've ever played).

I agree fully that all games shouldn't take the Quake III Arena approach but making a short, single-player only game really limits the marketability of the product this day and age (IMO).

So far so good, but HL2 does have the win in the graphics department. Now mind you, VTM Bloodlines is no pushover, HL2 is just better. I did the little character creation quiz and apparently I'm a Malkavian. *cackle* Pretty fun so far, but I haven't had more than an hour or so to tinker with it.

Gameplay wise, it's a blast. Playing a toreador as well, and so far I've only had to fight once besides the tutorial, and that was an optional quest. There's a haunted house mission that's incredibly creepy. One thing that's starting to bug me though is the skins. About a third are full computer art like the crazy malkavian nightclub owner and look very good. 2/3 though it looks like they just cut and pasted photos of people from around the office onto their heads and it just looks bad. And what they've go going on for most peoples hair is a crime against... well, hair. HL2, at least on a 9700pro  looks way, way better. So good in fact my wife commented on how close to real things look. However, I'm taking a break from it to unwind with Vampire. Not as good looking, but at least for me, a more relaxing game.

Oh, and bad game to Valve for having the steam shit, but still making have cd1 in the drive to play HL2. bleh

EB Games has an option to ship to any of their stores, for free.  I'm not sure if that works on released games or just preorders.  Basicly you're just preordering at the store without having to go to the store before you pick it up.  A bonus for folks like me who just fucking hate the mall.

Well, from what I hear Bloodlines is compatible with hammer. If true only morrowind comes to mind as a modern rpg with equally powerfull mod-tools. And that survived well beyond 3 months. I still see it on the shelves of most major shops around here.

I think the rapid expansions played a role in that.  If the game never truly "ends" it's a little easier to keep people buying it (since MP games rarely have a conclusion, they generally last longer...especially when developers/ambitious MODders keep supplying new content).

Example of a great SP game that's pretty much dead and buried now: Max Payne franchise.  Amazing Bullet-time novelty and likeable characters/dialogue...but it has a definitive end and the "Dead Man Walking" mode was too boring for my tastes.  I won the game in a single sitting and was really disappointed that it only lasted about a day on my hard drive before it was uninstalled for a newer title.

Funny thing about Morrowind: the MOD community actually made better graphics for the game(s) than the developers...gotta love passion-inspired art vs. profit-inspired art ;)

Can anyone give me a list of the system requirements for this game? Not even the game's fucking web site has system requirements, or if it does, I can't find it thanks to their ghey-ass mystery meat navigation.

Only have the minimum on the box

1.3 Athlon/Pentium
384 megs ram (512 recommended)
3d card needs to be directx 9 native
soundblaster (newly updated)
3.3 gigs of space + 1.4 gigs for swap file

Basically, it's a little easier to run than Counterstrike Source. Loads a hell of a lot faster than most FPS' out there right now. And is better. Period.

It's Deus Ex: Vampires.

Fuck, I meet it except for the video card. I needz me an upgrade.

I just  got home from the store picking up my pre-order and I open the case there is this strong smell of maple syrup as soon as I open it.. The CDs and everything work right and everything looks in order but I still get that smell. Anyone else notice this?

You have been invaded by the pancake people.

I've noticed that certain CD-Rs that I buy have that same smell. I guess it just means your discs were hot off the press when they were put in the packaging.

I thought that only happened with Bioware titles!

I have had the same thing with a big batch of cd-r at work. Whenever they were being burned there was a strong odor of maple syrup. It was maddening as when you were burning installs it made you crazy hungry for big stacks of pancakes.


kaid

Either that or the person putting the contents in the box had waffles for breakfast and didnt wash their hands.

Just got it. Reading the manual at work which I'm leaving early tonight to get me some Vampire Goodness. I'm leaning towards a Ventrue character or maybe a Brujah. Can't decide if I wanna be smart and devious or just kill things.

I dont have it yet, but I heard you cant play any of my three favorite clans. The Lasambra, The Giovanni or the Assimite.

Thats sucks if true, I really wanted to be a Lasambra.

My knowledge of this universe is just that TV series with that cheesy police actor.  Are the Ventrue the merchant charaters?

The Ventrue are the Aristocrats/Business men/ Corporation owners.

If you go to the bloodlines main page you can view a description of each race. Sadly, I was right. No Lasambra, Giovanni or Assimite. Seems like they left out all the interesting clans. Also no Tzsmech. Blah.

The clans you can be are. Bruja (Warrior), Tremere (Mage), Malkavian (insane, priests maybe), Ventrue (Merchants with mind powers), Gangrel (Beast aspect), Nosveratu (Ugly Rogues), and Toreador (Art Fags).

I think I will probably play through it twice, once as Tremere and once as Grengral. Maybe as Malkavian to see how they pull off the insanity factor.

Who are these people?  I took my leave of WoD right around Changeling, and I recognize all of the included clans and none of the ones you name, so there's obviously some kind of cutoff between the two that Troika is adhering to.

Assimite are assassins, really cool characters. They have a unique discipline that deals with stealthy killing

Giovanni are basically Mafia/necromancers

Lasombra I don't remember. I never dealt much with Sabbat clans.

I wouldn't call Ventrue merchants so much as Mafia-lite. After reading the manual I'm also considering Toreador.

<geek type="white wolf">
Assamite, Lasombra and Giovanni are all Sabbat clans.  From the list of clans you can play in the game, it looks like you can play ONLY Camarilla clans.
</geek>

Your inner geek is weak. Assamite is actually an independant clan.

I started playing as a Malkavian and it's pretty damn fun so far. It's particularly gratifying to see characters you talk when they realize you're insane. Heh. Plus, I'm really digging their powers. Spread the love... and insanity. *muhaha*

Actually Assamite and Giovanni are both independants (the other two indies are Ravnos and Settite). Lasombra and Tzimiche are the only two true Sabbot clans, however there are the Sabbot versions of all the Camirilla clans which have a name that escapes me at the moment (Anti-Gangrels isn't it.. its something else).

Well, since the Sabbat are your "enemies" at the start (I'm not terribly far along in the game just yet), it only goes to figure that you wouldn't play as one. The inclusion of the independents and Sabbat clans as playable would have been neat, sure, but I think they have a nice range as is and each should provide a different experience. Also, there are 4 possible endings to the game, so all the more reason to replay and try out another clan.

4 possible endings? Wouldn't there be.....7?

Well, 7 different ways to play, but IIRC there are 4 different endings based on with whom you decide to ally.

Lasambra are the Shadowmancers. They have powers over shadows, and can use them as weapons, or armor or minions. They have always been my favorite clan.

They're also amoral sociopaths and head of the Sabbat.  You'd have a hard time I think putting them into the protagonist role of this game.  "Ohh no, I violated the Masquerade.  Do I care? Pass the police officer, hon."

Would have been cool to play one, but the fit wouldn't be a good one.  Anyhow, with 7 different clans to choose from, a good variety for gameplay is already there.

Edit: I know there are multiple way to flex your nerd muscle to somehow fit the non Camarilla clans into the setting.  Lets not go there.

Seriously, wtf are you people talking about. There's nerdy and then there's scary.

I played a little V:TM in college. Ohh, it's nerdy and scary at the same time. It's also quite fun, if you can manage to not play with complete drama queens.  It's no worse than D&D, just a tad more roleplay than some may be used to.

The mythos and history in the game are impressive and incredibly well done.   I had a good time just reading the clan descriptions, politics, and so on.

Agreed. I only played once or twice (at least I remember creating a couple of characters), but I had a blast reading the source books.

I stayed as far from fat goth chicks with plastic vampire fangs as possible. Now what the heck are you all talking about?

I never played the pnp game. But I did read the 13 novels. While not very good, was not so bad for 'junk food reading'.

From what I heard of the game story, It doesnt really matter what clan you are, as your created by a rogue vampire and put under the leadership of a Ventrue anyway. So wouldnt just about any clan work?

Im going to try and get the game today, and if not today, then tomorrow for sure.

I would assume cost in developing the powers that each of those extra clans have.  Also the independant/Sabbat clans, while they have rogue members involved with the Camarilla, are not received with joy.  From a storyline pov, they would be radically different.

I guess. But I wanted to be a Lasambra. DAMNIT!

Most of my knowledge of the setting comes from playing the CCG years ago.  Best CCG ever produced for multiplayer settings in my opinion. Too bad no one plays it.  I did a recent survey of card stores in my area - one single store an hour away plays once a week.  Ends up the store is owned by one of the guys I used to play the game with locally. Most of the other stores have never even heard of it.

So, Im hoping that Bloodlines will fill that nerdy little Vampire need buried deep in my psyche.

Now here is a very important game play question for those that have played it:

If I make a hot, female Torreador, will I be able to use my wiles on other chicks, or is the game strictly homophobic?  I am confident enough in my manhood to enjoy playing female characters in games, but Im not quite emotionally advanced enough to feel comfortable hitting on computer generated guys...

Gah, you keep spelling it wrong. It's LasOmbra DAMMNIT!  =)

Well I am playing a Male Toreador and had the option to hit on a male thug at one point. That may just be because they're taking the art fag thing seriously though.

Gah the sound skipping thing is driving me crazy!

I bow to you knowledge of Vampire: TM.

Also, I think its about time you learned what every one else here knows. I absolutly suck at spelling. (I guess thats what happens when you teach yourself to read and write).

Yes... Yes, finally the bow I so deserve!

At first I figured it was a spelling-error. But since you continued to spell it lasambra for three post the inner-geek in me demanded that I act and act fast.

Eh, linguistics makes named things a bit boring though: lasombra "the shadow" en espanol.  Kuei-Jin (Shadow men/people) in Mandarin. Nosferatu "the afflicted" in German.   I'm suprised there's no "Chupacabra" clan in this universe. :P

Whatever the case, we all knew what was being referred to: "I'm Azreal Abyss....and this is Goth Talk!"

I'm still a bit confused why this new punk-fashion of the 1990's is even referred to as "gothic" (ostragoth or visigoth?).

/end nerd rant

My spanish is rusty. Does this roughly translate to "He of the Hairy Chimachangas?"

As for your goth question, dunno, though I do know that thin girls dressed in goth fashion are cute for some reason. Though I don't like all the angst that goes with the fashion.

Either/both.  But very indirectly.

Googling "gothic etymology"...

http://www.sfgoth.com/primer/etymology.html

The Chupacabra is the legendary Goatsucker. There's an X-Files episode about a...chupacabra man who is killing cattle or something.

It's basically the Mexican vampire. Needless to say - who gives a fuck. And if anyone did, I would quickly point out that there are no farm animals or that many mexicans (if any) in the game.

AMD 2500+ (1.8ghz)
1 GIG PC3200 RAM
GF4 TI 4200 (128megs)

This game is bending my computer over.  Any dynamic lighting effects are just killing me (haunted house = SLIDESHOW). I'm afraid to even see if there's some way to measure my FSP.

But god, it kicks so much ass I can suffer through it (even if the combat sucks).

Thanks for the head-up, Samwise.  The butchering of languages is always so entertaining-yet-confusing at times.

As for the way this game performs on my system: It's odd how HL2 (superior graphically) runs on my system as smooth as silk with ALL of the bells and whistles enabled while Vampire chugs through some rather awkward cinematics at times (the tutorial with Futurama's Bender [Jack] showed some odd "quirks" with the cutscenes: clothing appeared in the air and then dropped as each camera shot changed...and the spectral wolves mauling the Sabbats was pathetic...they fell after the wolves disappeared and it gave the appearence that the wolves were gnawing on their ankles).  There's a few other graphical issues in the cutscenes but the gameplay seems solid so far and the dialogue is some of the most impressive writing/voice-acting I've ever seen in a videogame.  

 After checking the manual for other well-known Voice-actors, I discovered Phil "Did you see a sign out front that said dead ****** storage?" La Marr (also from Futurama fame).

Someone game me a V:TM rulebook for my birthday a long time ago, but I got scared off by the live action roleplay part. It seems to me that live action V:TM would be either the nerdiest thing in existence or a flimsy excuse to flirt shamelessly with terrible puns and then have sex.

Yes.

Or you could just play the P&P version. It can be a decent horror RPG for thoose nights when Call of Cthulhu is just too heavy to get in the mood for.

I got the game. The fist thing I can say is, i was totally underwhealmed.

In the first 20 minutes of play, almost every npc I encountered had some kid of graphics or sound glitch. Lots of clipping problems, and textures not lining up right.

I have also been struck with character indecision.

I played a bit more, and the game is pretty cool, except my sound is really fubared. All the sound comes out about .1 second slower from the left side speakers than the right one. Making it totally unplayable with headphones, and still a pain with my speakers.

My overall impression is the game lacks a LOT of polish, and lots of little graphics bugs. But is still pretty fun once you get sucked in.

I have had zero graphics glitches. However, I and alot of others have had stuttering sound. It's not to bad in Vampire anymore, but it makes Halflife almost impossible to play.

How does one make a ghoul? Is it a potential dialogue option?

I think you can make a Ghoul by visiting a severely injured woman at the hospital/trauma center in the first city you enter.  I fed that woman to heal her and I evaded any dialogue involving me mentionaing that I'm a vampire (thought it was a trap to break the Masquerade so I kept the vamp part on the down-low).

As for the glitches: hell yeah!  The animations seem broken on my system: people walking and then suddenly sliding like Gumby and the textures are really bad in many instances (I'm a texture artist so I may just be nit-picking work I know I could do better than -- best texture mis-alignment is on a Tremere male during his opening cutscenes...is his neck/body supposed to be a dramatically different colour than the head?).  I'll try making some new textures that don't show off the UVWs when I learn how to MOD this engine.

So it is only limited NPCs you can do this to? I was kind of hoping you could make pretty much any NPC into a ghoul under the right circumstances. Then I could travel around and find the one I wanted.

The hospital you mention, is it that med center in the very beginning of the game? The one you have a couple of quests in, with the blood bank downstairs?

Yes it is.  The door on the left-hand wall just passed the service counter (and that annoying woman who calls the cops if you sneak passed her) has a young woman who appears to be dying while bleeding and crying.  If you heal her, you get some humanity back but I think there may be dialogue options hinting toward making her your ghoul.   Hope that helps.

Well, I'm gonna go there. I was going to go back to an earlier save anyway because of umm..something stupid I did having to do with the Haunted Hotel. I'll take a detour and check in there, see if she's still there.

Found her, fed her. Got chased off by the cops. Don't know if I'll see her again or not.

You people made me go to EB today and purchase the game. That's $50 I needed for, uhh, something! Damn you!

Okay, here's the lowdown on the ghoul chick:

*** SPOILERS ABOUT THE GHOUL CHICK AND SOME OTHER VAGUE REFERENCEs TO CRAP THAT HAPPENS****

1) It's the red headed girl with glasses who's bleeding and crying in  the very first room past the counter in the hospital in the first area.

2) Give her blood to save here. I don't think the conversation options matter, but you CAN NOT tell her you are a vampire or she freaks and the cops come. I went with the faggiest drama king responses that didn't mention vampires.

3) She then dissapears until just before you get an apartment in downtown, after you complete the boat mission for the Prince. When she appears she'll be waiting right at the cab drop-off point. If you give her the responses indicating you want her around she'll say she'll wait for you at your place. She means your new place in the Skyline Apartments that the Prince will give you when you go upsatairs.

***WARNING SEXIST PIG NERD HORNINESS***

4) She'll be in your apartment dressed in that nasty hippy crap that has the saving grace of displaying her nipples very prominently. If you give her blood you have the option of telling her to do something about her appearance. If you tell her that, she'll change into a hot goth chick outfit with fucked up hair and makeup regardless if you tell her you want a nice suprise or have a new outfit by the time you get back.  the outfit is a latex tube top and some sort of latexy pants. You can tell her to change her appearance again and she'll change back into the hippy crap. However....

5) If you use the extra pricky dialogue the first time she's in your apartment, tell her to change her outfit, and then feed on her, it opens up a third outfit she'll change into if you tell her to change her clothes a second time - a tight shirt cut just above her nipples, panties, high heels, and sorority whore hair and makeup. All in all it's the the most aestheticly pleasing of the three, mostly because the other two versions of her head are hideous.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!!

Ohh, you get a new apartment?  I guess that's if you don't wax a few cops during the boat mission.  Heh, they were in the way and using Vision of Death is too easy on humans.

Reactions after about 15 hours:

Fantastic game.  The World of Darkness ambiance is perfect.  There is no sense that daylight has ever existed or ever will exist.  The character graphics and voices are top notch.  The missions are fun.

Few quibbles:
1. The intro song is stolen from Massive Attack, but modified just enough to make me think they didn't ask for it.

2. It isn't as open-ended as I was led to expect.  From the previews I was thinking Morrowind-style open ended.  This is more sub-KOTOR open-endedness.  It feels like a railroad with a few minor deviations on the side.

3.  Just play a combat character.  Every situation in the game can be solved with violence, and there are a significant number of situations that can only be solved by violence.  That latter fact is a real pain in the ass if you built a character that wasn't combat oriented.  If I started over, I'd go as a Brujah hacker, but since I want to keep going with my fancy-pants Toreador, I've come to terms with the need to die/reload a few hundred more times.  I've taken to storing up a bunch of experience points, and when I get to one of the bits where I have to fight, jacking up the relevant combat skill.  There was one fight in particular where the only reason I had even the slimmest chance to handle it was that I healed up over time and the other guy didn't (even though he was a vampire.  go figure), so I found a way to hide in a corner for 15 minute stretches of realtime until I healed up fully, then went back out to suck on his shotgun some more.  Rinse/repeat.   This was kind of irritating.  If combat is going to be that essential, make that clear at character creation.

But again. . overall it's a great game, and I'd recommend it to anyone not horrified by goth culture.

So far I'm rather enjoying Bloodlines, outside of the clunky performance and really fucked up graphics glitches.

To give you an idea I was at the beginning of the game, I walked down to the beach, looked at the sky, and noticed that the City of Heroes (which I had just played) login screen was plastered across the sky.

Personally I prefer the roles within vampire games in which I am sticking stakes in them.   However, my bro bought it, and it does look fairly cool in that it implements stealth and a fairly good plotline.   Not to mention, OMG, the source engine.  I should probably give it a try.

Most of the ones you listed are in game as NPCs.



Nope, there are opportunities for coming out of the closet throughout the game. Doesn't have any lasting impact (unless to your psyche, if you're sensitive that way) Then again, vampires don't have sex anyway.

If you play a talky Toreador, you'll be hurting by the end of the game, as the combat required starts to ramp up pretty heavily.

There are 4 endings, but 3 of them are basically identical and amount to "who are you going to screw over at the end", and 1 is more of an easter egg than an ending.

I thought in this universe they did.

These vampires have sex. Hell, the first cutscene has condom wrappers sitting on a counter doesn't it?

Yes, but maybe for a vampire that's just foreplay?

Quick, someone ramp up the decency in this thread before it goes totally downhill...

Page Bruce.

You are beginning to remind me of those perverts who always wanted to play Ventrue with feeding restrictions like "rape victims" or "postcoital redheads in bunnysuits". And that is NOT a good sign.

Hello, Anne Rice influences.   Pesky vamp lovers and your silly ideas of the romanic undead.   Dracula, now he was a standup monster - he might get a lady interested on him as the tall, strong type, but he'd only be doing it to drain her empty or convert her to an undead minion.   He wouldn't complain about the neccessity or otherwise whine about it.  He did the things he did simply because he's a monster and his only purpose in his works was to be a fascinating foil for some stake-bearing hero somewhere.   He was everybody's favorite frankenstein alternative, life was good.

Now, these newer Vampires are more representive of teen angst than the seriously supernatural.    "AAIGH! MY VOICE IS CRACKING!  MUST DRINK BLOOD AND PRETEND I"M STRUGGLING WITH IMAGINARY RIVAL VAMPIRES RATHER THAN FACE THE REALITIES OF ADULTHOOD!"   I knew a kid like that in High School who said he wanted to be a vampire and was actively taking steps to achieve this.   Clearly, he had a summer home in Egypt next to De Nile at the time.

I suppose if you look past that the teen angst, the new vampire genre almost crediable on a "How do you think Drakula felt?" perspective.  Still, for reasons outlined above, the Vampire: The Masquarade RPG has always stunk heavily of rebellious teen goth angst for me.    

Curse them for taking the time to make a good Computer Role Playing First Person Shooters out of this genre I'm so biased against.   It's not like my choices of CRPFPS is all that big... I've only got System Shock and the original Deus Ex (since the DX2 is short, overly steamlined, totally berift of character development, and has zero replay value).   I'll just have to deal with my stigma against those goths and their crazy plotlines if it means playing a quality CRPGFPS.    It's a pity they didn't let you play a Hunter, now that would get my attention.

Hmm, wait a sec, I have the source engine... I could download the SDK and make my own silly CRPFPS and it would have physics that are even better than DX2's.... eeh, but who has the time?

Too late, Shadow of the Vampire already pulled that off.  Willem Dafoe, you da man.

As for the rest of your post, preach it, brotha.

Ignorance loves company.  The game has faults but for none of the reasons you listed.  

Sure I rolled my eyes as some vampire chicks name, but that was right before I cut her two with my axe.  

I mean, common, it could be worse.  Would you rather the world be populated by shitheads in sagging jeans with a trucker hat on sideways wearing a lifebeater tucked into their boxers?  The world of the game is gritty, evil, and stylish.  Fuck, I just finished investigating a super natural snuff film, right after axing a vampire hunter that was working a nudie booth in a porn store.

It's not just artsy Goth angst shit.  That's just the stupid Toreadors.  They can't touch an axe weilding, Malkavian psychopath that strolls the streets in what could best be described as a heavy biohazard suit (his outfit before that looked like an insane blackjack dealer).

If you want to bitch about the game, pick apart the crappy combat and horrid use of the Source engine.  The setting, however, is just one the the best I've seen since Fallout 2.  These Troika guys know their shit when it comes to immersion.

I admit, it's mostly my personal bias against the new age vampire genre that's inhibiting my enjoyment of the game.   So far as I can tell, Bloodlines is a really solid title fully worthy of being a classic CRPFPS despite it being a buggy piece of crap.

Like Daggerfall.

I cant get this stupid game to run, it hangs on the initial splash screen.  Quit making it sound so good damnit :/

As a side note, Source is the graphics and facial emotion engine. Havok is the physics engine. Are the two tied together? I think they may be separate entities and I don't think the Havok engine is readily available. I know VTM:Bloodlines uses the Source engine, but they are (obviously) not using Havok physics.

If Source is just graphics and facial engine, then they didn't do JACK SHIT to make Half-Life: Source. I want to cry now.

Havok is the physics engine in the Source engine. Even Source engine mod developers have access to the Havok engine.

Man. Now the conversation makes me even more upset with how truly horrible HL: Source is. Is there a chance that HL: Source as it launches now isn't the new product but the old one until they're done? Has anyone else played it? Did I fuck up loading it or something? Nothing seemed improved. NOTHING.

Yea i think, their approach with HL:S was generally more the "here kiddies, come back to my van, i'll give you candy! ". It's a good thing they didn't charge extra for it.

On a side note though, i positively loathe them for not getting Bloodlines to Australia fast enough. Cowards.

 - meg

Megrim, don't cry for Bloodlines. Wait for a patch to be released. Right now it's buggy as fuck. The Source Engine bugs from HL2 are amplified in Bloodlines. Why? I don't know. But it's damned terrible.

Patch?! Ugh... knowing Troika's approach to patches some thorough cl_cry 1 may have to be in order =)

 - meg

Indeed.   This one is crying out for me to buy it.  (Since I completed HL2 in about 13 hours and it sucked nuts.)

However, by the sound of it, I too will be waiting for a patch before plinking money down.

Thanks for clarifying that for me, Trippy.

While agree this game is a buggy mess, I have yet to find any game breaking problems outside the intermittent benign strangeness. The most common bug is probably that which has NPCs teleporting to their destination in some cases, be it across a room or through a building. Any time I thought I encountered a quest bug it was just me doing something wrong.

The voice acting in this game is just amazing. I'm perplexed that it took this long for developers to realize how much a voice actor with FEELING and PERSONALITY can add to the ambience of a game. Even the scripting is well done, making conversations something I actually *want* to participate in. The dialog is rich with humor and style, often eliciting a chuckle.

While I agree that there is a lack of free-form RPG elements a la Morrowind I am really enjoying the game regardless. The richness of the world and the characters really makes for a fulfilling experience, in my humblest of opinions. I actually feel like I'm interacting rather than just setting off triggers.

All things considered, a decent game. Far better than I had expected.

I had the same problem until I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers.  Works fine since then and overall thus far I have to agree; fun game and liking the atmosphere.  Deus Ex: Vampires is about right.

Definately can't play this one when the kiddies are awake though.

Xilren

Heh.
When I still thought majoring in English lit. and language was a good idea I wrote a literature paper on Dracula, which mirrored this somewhat.
...  what I failed to take into consideration was that my female professor was also the official Danish translator of all that is Anne Rice.
We didn't agree on much.

I'll still play the game. It looks gorgeus and very full of atmosphere.
When I finish Half-Life 2.

Seems like a nice game so far, picked it up last night and got in about an hour after MNF was over. Took a few minutes to find out there is no widescreen support (boo, still haven't finished Thief: DS because of that), but there is a wonky 'anamorphic' support within the 4:3 ratio image. I haven't found a good fov value that makes the game feel right, though. I'm pretty unhappy that yet another 3d game, which should easily be able to support 16:9 ratio, doesn't. What's the worst that happens? Stretched UI elements? Better than the entire 3d port being wonky imo.

So after fiddling around and getting something playable (barely), I got in, notice I have the sound stuttering problem (and the odd footstep lag, keep thinking someone is following me!), but I do like the first guy you meet, Jack. My kinda guy.

I initially took the quiz, which said I'm a gangrel. Rawr. Went back and chose Ventrue, I like the domination conversation options in games (like KotOR).

While I haven't any plans to play Bloodlines, I guess I should mention that I did play the first VtM computer game game and thought it was okay.  Not sure how it would play on today's machines, but for those of you who still thirst after playing Bloodlines might want to check it out.

Bruce

Apples and oranges (with fangs!)

The original VtM PC game was a Diablo clone, albeit one with a really nice engine, a NWN-esque GM mode (before NWN was released), and a really difficult balance.   I never made it to the modern age in VtM, I think I was stopped dead (poor pun considering you're a vampire) by some early boss.

VtM: Bloodlines is far more reminiescent of Deus Ex.   Except instead of being a cybernetically altered super soldier in a world full of deadly conspiracies, you're a supernatural horror super soldier in a world full of vampiric conspiracies.    Works for me, really.  I like Deus Ex.  Skill-based crosshair size for the win.  I'd be playing Deus Ex 2 some more if it had anything resembling reply value.   (As it was, I managed to explore every single square inch of the game on my first go.)

I haven't really played Bloodlines, only saw my bro puttering around with it.  However, it looks drop dead gorgeous, but a little loosely assembled in such a way that I'm not surprised to hear my brother's running into game-stopping bugs from time to time.   From what I hear, the part of First Person Shooter Role Playing Game that's being emphesized is the Role Playing portion.   Very well developed race selection and skill progression.   That's good news.

The original VtM is ridiculously easy when you stick to the melee weapons, all modern weapons were underpowered. But then I used to single pull all enemies by trying to feed on them from afar. Blame Everquest for that behaviour, I'm still ashamed of it.

Yeah, it was one of the 'charm' lines of powers that just allowed you to beckon them over and then suck on the neck.  It became a bit easy after that.

And then there was that cool 'vampire sword' which basically made you unstoppable.

I picked up that sword but didn't use it for the longest time, thinking 'this thing has got to be a piece of shit'....then once I realized what it actually did I didn't use anything else for the rest of the game (except claws sometimes just for amusement)

Well, just a hint for future :

If you enter the nicest and most crafted area in a game - one that people have obviously taken time over - to find a glowing item that has a fresco of the gods of vampires on the wall behind it like michealangelo and the item itself has 'x of the utter gods' emblazoned on the pack ;  don't just pawn it at the shop.

heheheh.

No, I think he's talking about one of the Tremere abilities that let you drain blood at range, instead of having to sink teeth.  It was obscenely overpowered - effectively an "I win" button for anything except bosses.

I don't remember if it had the same name in the first one, but it is called Blood Strike in Bloodlines. I used it a couple of times last night (I FINALLY got the game, and got it running after some hiccups). As Roac said, it was overpowered as hell. My basic strategy was to lure them in with Blood Strike, hack them to bits with the uber sword, and maybe feed on them at the end if I could get a grip.

Well, it's not really ringing any bells, but I'll take yer word for it.  I personally went up the charm path and pretty much stuck to it.  The kingly one owned everything, as I remember.

I always thought it was a damn fine game, but I remember people panning it at the time.

My memory is hazy (been forever since the one time I played the gme through) but I don't think it was obvious that it drained blood for you until you used it (maybe it did say that and I just didn't bother to read it, heh), and other than that feature the stats were kinda 'meh'.  I thought it was some quest junk that you needed later, so I never bothered to use it until I woke up in the modern era without any of my other crap...

My local gaming circle really enjoyed the first Vampire game, and I was accused of using EQ pulling tactics ;) Heck, I played the entire game like EQ...

I love games that time travel like the first Vampire and Eternal Darkness, more plzkthx.

Gotta agree here. It's always interesting to follow a story throughout the ages. Eternall Darkness managed to keep more modern times a bit more interesting than Redemption, but I suppose some of that blame must fall on White Wolves rules about firearms being pretty much useless against vampires.

Well, in Bloodlines...a 12-gauge Shotgun is pretty useless against humans too (the warehouse quest).  I'm not a forensic expert but I'm pretty sure a point-blank shot from said gun would leave a decent sized hole in someone and not just nock them back without killing them.  I think it took 3 or 4 shots to take those humans down.

Yepp, Firearms are even more useless in Bloodlines. There was exactly one point in the game that I found them to be usefull.

Heh, I remember my kickass strategy in the origional game was learning that ability that froze people for a bit (got sick of those vampire mages using it against me), then spamming the hell out o it.  Made EVERY encounter a cakewalk.  I mean, fuck. The final boss in the game barely managed to even hit me, he spent most of the entire fight frozen stiff getting the shit pounded out of him by the rest of my team.

Bloodlines "fixed" that by only including the blood line of magic for the tremere...

Personally I fixed that certain flaw by not allowing Tremere chars to be powergaming assholes when I was a DM.

If only I'd listened to you, you very, very sexy man.

Alas, I didn't and now I am faced with horrendous bugs from the planet xarg.

Patch please.

Further, the haunted house mission is freaking my wife out.  I, of course, am remaining cool, calm and collected.

(yikes).

That Haunted House mission was the most impressive "scare" I have had in a long time from a videogame (counting Doom3's lame-assed fun-house on a conveyor belt).  

***Spoiler Below***
The whispers of "he's here" and a flsh of lightning showing a phantasm appearing to my side made me shoot the floor and ceilings like a Miami Vice extra!
***Spoiler Above***

How does it compare with the Cradle from Thief 3?  That was one of, if not THE, creepiest levels I have ever played in a video game

I am so glad to know I'm not the only person that got creeped out at certain points of the haunted house.

Just to clarify, I was speaking of the fact that if you used the normal feed action (the one every Vampire has to replenish blood) at range, the game told you you can't feed on the targets, but they were pissed off anyway and ran towards you. The roleplayer in me rationalized it as barring my fangs and making threatening gestures until my enemy had enough of it. Kinda like the WoD-Version of a Kender.

Can I just say that the whole 'Heather;slut ghoul' is the most childish and ridiculous thing to ever be included in a computer game EVER ?!

I look at the manual and am unsurprised that not many women worked on this game.  Jesus Christ, guys grow up.

On that note, anyone know what happens if you're a burd ?  Is Heather a bloke or does it just get, er, even more indecent ?

I sent her home after she brought somebody in to feed upon. Twas good for a point of humanity.

But yes, seems like some people gave form to their fantasies by making that game. Other proofs: The Malkavian ponytail baroness and the Toreador whore with her teenager love emails.

Really, in the future getting laid once in a while should be prerequisite to doing the story for a Vampire roleplaying game. That is too much like the campaigns of those pimple faced GMs in my adolescent years.

Boo hoo. Should Rock Star have to actually go out and off a few people before making their new game?

Comeon. This game was about stereotypes of a relatively underground culture. In the music, the talking, the clothing - everything. It was pretty spot on at that. The only thing that was missing was the massive amount of homosexuals that for some reason or another seem to go under the "goth" flag as well.

After having re-played the game as a female ventrue I can testify that the game sports just as many lesbians/bi-sexuals as your run on the mill goth-club.

Should I have said fags? I didn't want to say fags. I meant specifically Male Homosoexuals.

You say 'fags' if you want, petal.

As to the game, I'm enjoying it a lot ;  I just think it went waaaaaay over the top with Heather.  I'm all for a game being 18 and containing some heavy adult themes (and it does) - what bothers me is making a game 18 and then using that as an excuse to slip in dominance games.

Yours Sincerely,

Little Morsel.

While I agree with you that the approach is a little on the immature side with your ghoul, the fact is they let you choose how you want to approach it.

If you want to be a nice vampire and send her home, go right ahead. If you want to ..ahem.. be a semi-psychotic, dominant, lesbian-bitch vampire - you can.

Nothing wrong with a little immaturity in a game as long as you aren't forced in to it.

So when GTA does stuff like that, it's "cool", but when a Vampire game does it, it's "icky"?

I see you've read my incredible fanboi rants on the subject of GTA.

Oh, no, wait - you haven't.  'Cause I don't remember saying any such fucking thing....

And I also think that you're comparing appples to oranges here, since the concept of 'dialogue' doesn't really exist in GTA to that extent.  There's absolutely none of the 'hur hur hur, strip down to yer panties, bitch, hur hur hur' mentality that comes across, because, well, that's not really what Vercitti was about.

Or am I misunderstanding you ?

Man, who goddamn cares.

She's your ghoul.  You made her, you own her. She's basically a heroin addict and you're the only pusher.  So far I'm amazed they've showed so much restraint.  Have you played the rest of the game, it could be much much worse.  

She comes in 3 flavors: hippy, slut, and goth.  BIG-FUCKING-DEAL.

It's that goddamn simple. So can we get back to bitching about the graphics and degeneration of the late game into Vampire: Let's Fighting Love?

Just looking at general attitudes.  Don't hear complaints here about the stuff going on in GTA, but when a game touches on something goth with otherwise similar-ish content, people point fingers, either at the devs for their design choices, or the players for liking something that smells of goth.

And that's how it should be.  You wanted to be the "tragic outsider who no one understands"?  You got it, shitbag.  Suck it up.

You'd have to be more than a little myopic to figure me for a goth.  My point is that it's somewhat amusing to watch some in the geek subculture in arms against the goth subculture.  BG, which one are you? (http://images.southparkstudios.com/img/content/season5/503.gif)

I don't know what you are or where you hang your freak flag.  Doesn't matter.  I used the word "you" more as a rhetorical device in reference to goths pissing and moaning about people not understanding them.  Isn't that why they wear their mother's blouses and makeup in the first place?  Because they want to be seen as misunderstood outsiders?  So suck it up, bitches, I'm giving you what you apparently crave.

I'd say I got more scare factor out of the Hotel than the Cradle. I dunno, the cradle never really did anything for me, and I'm a fan of eerie environements. The Hotel had a lot more Resident Evil "jump" scares (alright with the poltergeist vases already), but it also had a lot more geniune creepy effects, like the occasionally visible ghosts and whispers and whatnot.

As for the gothiness, whatever. The music is great, I can hear where some of it was 'stolen' from, like the Manson in the Anarch's bar. Good quality stuff for knock-off music, maybe even better than if they had gone with original music, because the knock-off stuff is fresh, not tired.

A bit buggy, but nothing that's made me backtrack through a few save points or anything. The worst two I've found are buggy doors, requiring a reload (you can save right there, just needs to reload the level's objects), and the sound bug. Sound bug stops all audio, requires a full reboot of the machine, happens about once every lots of hours, three times since playing the game. Not too bad because they aren't total gamebreakers beyond just having to reboot. Bad because with all the extra time Troika should have had with the HL2 delays, but apparently didn't get, they should have been stomped out (along with a few typoes farther along in the game).

Ah, thought the sound bug was machine specific to my rig. Glad it aint.

Just finished (damn is that game short) and started replaying it as Malkavian.
Really neat twist how they give hints about the plot in dialogue options with Malkavian characters and visual hints as well (at least I think my Brujah didn't see any message in red on that blackboard). Nice way to show that insight the insane Malks are supposed to have.

Ok, I just think that replayability almost doubled my play time.

The game is fun but littered with little visual bugs.  Opening cutscene has some people walking away from camera and they were totally unanimated, just sliding along the floor (could only see upper torso) then a few cuts later they were walking and animated... um... if you have the animation for them walking why wasn't it in place?  Reeks of being thrown together 20 minutes before the gold was stamped.

Muzzle flash on some guns in cutscenes occur INSIDE the gun, looks awful.  Stuff like that.

Facial textures and animations are downright hideous.  Every NPC looks awful, and then just gets worse when they start to talk.

Voice acting is good for 80% of the npcs and horrifically bad for 20%.

Halflife2 and EQ2 both have consistently better voice acting.  Halflife 2 has GREAT facial animations, textures, and models in comparison to this.  I dread talking to people because they universally look terrible.  And my wife always looks over at those times and makes fun of how they messed up the facial bone structure and/or the animations.

Overall it is a good game, but it is awkward.  Seems to be the hallmark of Troika.  They really need the video game equivalent of a good editor.  Let it go to some other dev house for polish.  Troika seems incapable of making a polished game.  They don't seem detail oriented at all.

I like the game, should have good replay.  The game should have / could have been a lot better though.

Malkavians start with +2 inspection, iirc.

It's not too fair to say that Half-Life 2 did things better than VTM: Bloodlines.   Of course they did, for some very good reasons:

1. Valve, who was working on Half-Life 2, was the lead organization involved in creating the Source engine, where Troika was basically learning how to use and modify somebody else's engine to make Bloodlines

2. Half-Life 2 had a over a billion dollars invested in it's production, where Bloodlines was probably a seven figure game at most.

Getting faces and expressions to look as good as Half-Life 2 involves a whole lot more than simply using the source engine.

Granted, I'm not excusing Troika entirely.   Voice acting has nothing to do with the engine, and they could have taken a little time to figure out why the muzzle flash is wrong at times.     Also, the game needs a patch, badly.

Are you being sarcastic or do you have numbers to back that up?

He made it up. I'd put money on the entire thing - including remaking HL1: Source, CS: Source, DoD: Source, the source Engine, and the Havok engine at under $100M. Hell. PC Games just don't sell well enough to have more money than that spent on production.

Newell said $60m, but I can't find a link.

Well, I wasn't trying to make it up.  I read it somewhere on the net, and yes it is an extraordinary amount of money to plug into a computer game's development.   Plus, I have a wonderful habit of recalling incorrectly about these things.   Lets see if I can google some sources...

"Gabe assures us that, "Basically, we took every dollar we made on Half-Life and put it into Half-Life 2," and considering that Half-Life has now sold over eight million copies, that's one hell of a development budget if true." (http://gamesradar.msn.co.uk/features/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=26627&subsectionid=1639)

Bah, after 30 minutes of searching I haven't foudn any real hard figures.  But I agree, 1 billion does seem like a bit much (though Microsoft spends over 7 times that much on R&D every year).   One thing that is clear is that HL2 had a very, very big development budget.  The biggest in computer game history.   So, we're probably looking somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million.   If I really wanted to try to cover my butt here, I'd say I'm also including development of steam and distribution in all that.

The closest thing I can find is here (http://www.gamespot.com/features/6112889/p-19.html).

Anything more than Everquest 2 would surprise me. Shock me, in fact. Fucking game has no story. They only had to focus on the gameplay.

Well, it's not the gameplay that costs the big bucks, it's the content.   The level of detail you see in Half Life 2 (especially inside of the citadel) shows that they must have really spent a great deal of time and money developing that.    (Granted, the thing we'll probably ultimately be buying Half-Life 3 over is the mod support.)

Geldon, HL2 does not LOOK like it cost more than Doom 3. Hi-res textures aren't that hard to produce. I'm rather certain you're pulling this all out of your ass and aren't quite sure where the money went to.

Hats.


Just to clear that up.

We were invited over to dinner once, but declined.

I'd be surprised if Doom 3 ran even more than Half-Life 2 did.  But yes, without any concrete sources sufficiently vulnerable to my google-fu, I'm definately throwing guesses here.  Is there something wrong with making guesses at this point?

So yes, when I say that a lot of Half Life 2's development budget went to the content, that is a rough estimation.   Those Combine body moving cranes didn't animate themselves.    However, how much money went to content alone is nothing I'm intending to quote specific figures on.

Your google-fu sucks and for that reason do not make stupid guesses. 60 seconds of google gave me the the link and quote I provided previous. If you had tried even that hard you would've been at a more reasonable figure than $1 billion.
Thank you, drive through.

Hmm, if I am humbled in my lacking of google-fu, would the proper thing to do be commiting Seppuku with a keyboard or to simply return to the dojo of google to prostate myself before my sensei in disgrace?

Nah, you probably just lucked out in keyword selection.   The google Samurai remains untainted.

But yes, I guess one billion dollars was a bit out of line, even though I "thought I read it somewhere", it was ten to twenty times as much as the game actually cost by anything we've been able to determine.  Still, that's a pretty damn big budget - can't blow a tenth of a billion on every game.   Relatively speaking, I wasn't that far off the mark.

Story can't cost that much... Hell, Interplay let us have Planescape Torment ( Their last act as a great producer ).

That's like saying Rosie O'Donnel is a bit dykey.

If they sold 8 million copies at $30 apiece (accounting for early release sales and late release sales, with different price points), you're looking at $240M.  Considering that developers make somewhere around 20% of total sales, that leaves them with around $50M.  Course, that's just napkin math, but doesn't give you anything close to $1B.  You'd need 20M in sales, at $50 per, and with 100% returns, to make that.

I would say that making faces as well done as in hl2 is difficult. The vampire game though has a lot of really stupid lack of detail issues though that mar an otherwise really neat looking game.

Just some silly things that with even a small bit of extra work could be made to look much better. As alluvian mentioned in some cut sceens people slide their upper bodies animate but they just slide across the floor and their lower bodies do not animate.

Muzzle flashes INSIDE the guns.

There were some other things I saw as well. they are by no means game breakers but man its kinda silly to stumble over such trivial things which could have made what looks to be an excellent game even better.

Most of my biggest gripes should not have jacked up their budget at all it is all stuff that should have been corrected very early in the graphics/bug pass.  They are easily repeatable and very noticable if you are looking for them at all.


kaid

And the typos. C'mon, didn't anyone playtest the game once? That's all it'd have taken to find the dozens of mispellings I've stumbled across in conversations and email. Good game, though, really enjoying it (not done yet, I may be the slowest gamer ever, heh).

I'd procrastinate against you for that title sir!  Well, actually it's not so much slowness as simple lack of gaming time, but i am ony now headed to the museum of natural history.  Started as a Gangrel, didn't like it the disciplines by the time i finished Santa Monica (warehouse Sabbat vamp fights were much tougher than they should have been with this character), so I restarted as a Brujah pumping Celerity and combat as been cake thus far.

Really liked listening to the tapes of the crazy bastard Malkavian primogen in his mansion.  Reminded me of listening to logs in System shock...

Fun game, despite the overall lack of polish and some bugginess.

Xilren

My eyes!  Zee goggles do nothing!

Apart from the heinous visual bugs, it's a great game so far.

I've seen a shitload of typos and model bugs so far, but oddly I don't care, despite being a complete graphics whore.

Then again, I thought Doom 3 fucking sucked, so I'm not all that consistent.

It's the flickering that really drives me up the wall.  Talk about immersion breaking.

That and the time I got stuck inside a door.  Good thing I had saved just before that.

So anyway, i encountered my first bug last night. The game, of course, having taken note of the fact that i'v not yet had any problems, decided to screw me in the most royal of fashions possible.

Minor spoilearage warning thing:

Having just carved my way through the Society of Leopold with my Malk (arguing with stop signs is <3) and "rescued" the archaeologist, the game CTDs during the load times after the escape in the boat. No matter what i do, or how far back i load (within reason).

Has anyone had this problem, and more importantly, does anyone know of a way to fix it?

The boards were full of solutions for that one - they mostly involved cheating with the console...

Check the whitewolf boards first.

Doh and I registred just to fess up an answer. Anyhow here is the fix if you're to lazy to search :

Run the game in -console mode ("C:\Theexefilesomewhere" -console) :

Load up your game and open up console with ² key (on Euro keyboard btw, but should be the same I think).

Type :
SaveJohansen()
changelevel2 la_hub_1 taxi_landmark
or if you're a Nosferatu : changelevel2 la_hub_1 sewer_map_landmark


Troika is working on a patch currently and I believe the community already produced a patch of themselves too.

Holy.. that was fast. Thank you very much!

Sorry dude.  And welcome.

Hehe np, hope the workaround worked for Megrim.

Great game, horrible bugs.

Don't worry btw, this bug is perfectly normal : many (if not most) players seem to be running into this gamestopper.

Hrmm, it would appear that while the fix does infact get you though the bug, it does so at the expense of one's inventory menu as well as a perpetual cutscene loop in the following dialog with Beckett.

Maybe if i load back far enough...

 - meg

I read somewhere that if you experience issues with your inventory after doing this, you are to load the save and try the solution again, this time closer to the boat (right next to it, if you can manage -- just don't hop on it or you'll trigger the bug that will crash you).

I also ran into this problem, but the fix worked out fine for me.

Look here for the "unofficial" patch which fixes a lot of the bugs :

http://www.forumplanet.com/planetvampire/topic.asp?fid=9643&tid=1549886


Like I said an official patch is in the works, likely not compatible with the unofficial patch though.

I got the Beckett loop too.  Fortunately, I had an autosave from immediately prior to that, so I just loaded from it and tried again.  Walk down that section of street very slowly.  That's what I did and this time Beckett found me.  As far as I could guess, the first time he just wasn't able to run up to me because I was in a place he didn't expect and his pathing got stuck on something, so the cutscene could never complete.

Poor fool didn't mirror it on a site with actual bandwidth.  As a result, the unofficial patch is obtainable due to the din of thousands of VTM: Bloodlines players trying to get it from some guy's personal webspace.

"Offical" Patch released (http://www.vampirebloodlines.com/patch/):



EDIT: Bah! It still runs like shit.

Figures- I just bought WoW to play while I waited for a patch. Oh well- Vampire can wait a bit longer =)

Naw, it's a damn fine game regardless of bugs. Sure wish they had spellchecked it or something, tough.  Although it seems to me that most of the bug issues people are having are heavily system-dependant.  The only issue i've encountered was the Leopold quest CTD (which was fixed via the level skip thing while swimming under the boat).

It's definitely worth playing now =)

 - meg

You're destroying quality in the gaming industry.

Stop it.

Fucking Troika, man. I should have known.

I'm just giving it away...It'll make a lousy Christmas present or something.

EDIT: OK, yeah, the Ocean House was pretty damn cool, but I won't be buying another game from Troika again. The only other things that held any value were more White Wolf related. The rest is shit, bugs and otherwise.

Ok - finished it last night. The 1.2 patch seemed to fix a lot, but the Ocean house was the worst for me. Until I patched my MB with a new bios, updated my sound drivers, and then it worked fine.

The story was great. I'd put this up there with Planescape and KOTOR. I want to go back and play with a different char type and see how much different it makes the game.

Gonna try guns and swords this time and screw the seduction.

so.....if i play KOTOR2,PoP2 and Ridick,is this still worth getting it?

So...uhm...yeah

Make one more post in the flavor of Pyro and you're gone.

whos's pyro?a spammer?
ill stop spamming....for the moment.Gonna try to post some content first,and think later.or the other way around....

(http://www.simplifiedsigns.org/goodbye.jpg)

Edit: Removed other stuff. Bloodlines stuff below was more important and obviously topical.

I run Bloodlines on a second hard drive. I noticed a couple days ago that the harddrive it was running on didn't have a pagefile. Went into system administrator shit in control panel, activated a huge pagefile for the drive (something like 3 gigs on a 250gig drive) and pachink, no more perfomance problems. YMMV, but you need at least a 1500mb pagefile for stuff from the source engine to run as it should on your machine. Or so other sites say.

I'm almost done with my fourth time through the game now.  Getting pretty tired of the sewer level (this last time through, having convinced myself that I'd wrung every possible strategic dimension out of those fights, I just noclipped to the end so I could get back to the fun bits), but most of the other quests actually feel different depending on your character type, and I've had fun seeing different sides of various quests and characters.

For example, I didn't realize until my fourth time through the blood bank quest that Vandal is screwy in the head because he's Therese's ghoul, and is therefore whacked out on Malk blood.  Playing as a Malkavian gives you a lot of information that you don't get with the other character types (assuming you can decipher it through the heavy layer of cheesy metaphors).

If I make it through a fifth time, VtMB will officially break Max Payne's record for consecutive play-throughs of a single player game by me.

Malkavian female Heavy Cloth armor, chaps and a cowboy hat, nuff said.

For me it was a toss-up between the light cloth (the skirt that would flip up if you turned too quickly) and the light leather (half a cop uniform with "Precinct 69" on the back).  The other clans dress very drably by comparison.

Ok, I'm in this game, and I think I'm fucked. I'm playing as a Nosferatu, and I seem to have done all the quests for Downtown and yet can't go to Hollywood yet. I have a quest to see LaCroix Downtown, but when I went in there the first time, I insulted the guard and now he won't talk to me and I can't enter any of the elevators. Have I missed something?

Also, my ghoul friend Mercurio seems to have died because I didn't get him morphine quickly enough. Am I fucked?

There's a service elevator you can get access to if you enter the building from the sewers.

Total side note here: this is kind of replayability that's missing from a supposedly story-driven MMORPG like CoH. Imagine if CoH's mission stories varied in content and detail depending on your archtype or origin? Obviously, making multiple paths for a single player RPG is part of its appeal. Glad to know Bloodlines holds this kind of replay value.

Haemish, losing Mercurio is no biggie. Ya just lose one place to shop, whoopty doo.

I was waiting for a patch to come out to play this game.  So now I ask:  Is this patch really game-fixing?  Or not that big of a deal?

Will there be another patch?

I'll wait for them to finish their game before I play it.

I also want to play this game, but I would like to be fairly certain that it works.  Updates?

It's just dropped to £10 to buy in the UK, so I've only just picked it up. The 1.2 patch seems stable so far, but I'm not far in.


Also, is it actually possible to affect the outcome of the incident with the gun in the club in Santa Monica?

The number of routes through the dialog tree I've tried is starting to suggest not.

But I am playing Malkavian, so I often have little idea what the hell I am talking about.

I had very little problem with the game bugwise. I think I had 3 instances where I said WTF. The worst one is getting stuck in a dialog loop with the Nosferatu in the tunnels. %*^*& annoying.

 To answer the Therette question, you have to have a decently high persuasion skill to affect it positively. If you can convince them to live happily together, you get more XP, and the advantage of seeing one freaky lookin CEO type. If your persuasion is low, thou art surely screwed. Go with Jeanette. You at least get to make it with her that way.

There was only one truely gamestopping bug in the release and that one was fairly close to the end (of course that was one bug to many).

1.1 patch took care of that, game still doesn't run great but frankly if you like FP-style RPGs at all you should have tried this game out long before already  :-P

Tip : high persuasion can be very important. Gives lots more options in discussions.

Yes, I'm a fucking idiot who cannot read. I went back to Downtown and looked at the sewer map again and saw the underground entrace. The worst part was that I had already seen it and thought to myself that I should go look at that, but I never did. I got caught up with other quests and forgot it was there.

I am Jack's Complete Lack of Short Term Memory.

EDIT: I've only played the 1.2 patch. The biggest bugs I get are just lack of optimization, such as how the sound stutters or the game freezes for a second as I'm walking along. And this is with a 7200 RPM SATA drive on a 3.0 Ghz P4. Maybe it's better with 1 GB of RAM instead of 512MB.

1G of RAM would probably help.  The game seems to use all of it, since when I quit or alt-tab out, there's a lot of grinding as everything else gets pulled off of disk (with most other games I can alt-tab out and everything else is still in physical memory because the game didn't use up the full gig).  Yeah, this thing's a hog, which is a shame.  I'm looking forward to trying it on my new SLI rig once I put that together.

I'm almost done with my 6th playthrough now (Nosferatu).  I'd recommend against playing a Noss for your first time through, as it presents a number of unique challenges - for example, having to use the underground entrance to Venture Tower.  I'd found it by accident in one of my previous games, so I knew exactly what to do when Chunk refused to let me up, but I can see how that'd be frustrating as hell if it was your first time in there.

Obfuscate is the bee's knees.  Sticking an invisible katana through someone's back just never gets old.

As an avid reader of V:tM books for the last 8 years, I still can't get into Nosferatu very much.  Malkavians and Gangrel are more my style.  That's because I'm a walking stereotype.

See, I dig the Nosferatu. I'm not a big fan of the whole V:TM franchise, but when I played the CCG they put out years ago, Nos was my favorite clan, followed by Brujah. Then maybe Gangrel. All the poncy, fairy-type clans like the Ventrue just pissed me off.

Would it surprise anyone if my favorite clan was the Malkavian? Anyone? Please?

That i think was one of the problems with Bloodlines. All of the clans presented were the poncy Camarilla ones (for which i have very little liking). So the natural choice for most i think is Malk, since it's the only one that is truly unique. All the others are too stereotypical (Brujah/Gangrel? hah!)

 - meg

Shocked. Just shocked. Mine too, but just cause she was the hottest.

The Malk dialogue is awesome, as is the Dementation discipline.  If I were to replay any of the clans, it'd be Malk, no contest.

Malkavians have the funnest dialog overall, but it gets mildly annoying whenever you meet anybody new since you usually have to go through the, "What the fuck are you saying you goddamn fruitcake?" dialogue before getting down to business.

I played Treador since they're decidedly middle of the road in terms of advantages/disadvantages, and since all the other non-Malk clans looked retarded. I almost picked Brujah, but the male Brujah looks like a fucking wigger.

Wow. I haven't heard that word since like 1994. That's probably why it's funny too.

Malkavian4life.

I do like the Tremere and Venture (and even the Toreador, though less often) if I'm in the right sort of mood.  There is something fun about completely ditching your conscience in a pursuit of power.  Uh.  Fictionally.

Hell, one of my characters in CoH has a backstory that would fit in perfectly with the Tremere.

I just started a Malk chick for a second go with the game. First time around I played a Ventrue, gotta love kicking ass in a business suit.

The sound stuttering afaik is an artifact of the engine, people got it alot in HL2, apparently. I got it a couple times in each game, though moreso in Vampire, which was oddly buggy for the amount of extra time it should have gotten with HL2's delays.

The sound stuttering only seems to happen around VV.  Her assets must not get loaded when the level does, for whatever reason, because as soon as she comes into view for the first time in any given level (the courtroom scene is one, Vesuvius is the other), you get the stuttering.  No other character seems to have that problem.  (Insert joke about VV's "assets" here.)

Damnit!

That's really weird. It must be some kind of hardware thing because i have not once gotten this issue, and my comp is considerably older than most.

 - meg

I recall seeing a technical explanation of the stuttering bug on some forum somewhere... it happens when the Source engine loads textures into video memory.  (You can test this from the console by running some dev command whose only function is to load a bit of texture.)  If the problem is the way that Source uses video memory, it could definitely be hardware-dependent.

At least in Vampire it's only in a couple of areas of the game.  It happened a good number of times in HL2 for me, most notably all over the beach levels, every  time I first saw an antlion after a new level loaded.

Both of the computers I have seen halife 2 on have some minor sound stutters usually just when you zone in to a new area and then it plays smooth as silk.

I didnt have a single problem with HL2 sounds. While VtM:B it is horrible. Almost unplayable. The sound comes out about .05 of a second faster from my left speaker than my right. Its REALLY wierd. I might reinstall and give the game another go after I hit 60 in WoW.

Same here. I had to quit playing because this just annoyed the fuck out of me. It's like a really bad dubbed movie. It also didn't help that the skipping was so constant sometimes I had to reload a save file to understand WTF someone just said.

Just decided to go out and pick this up earlier today, and I gotta say...Good stuff so far. At this moment I'm in the hotel, and god damnit, that is a hard area to play while alone at night....random items flying at me, floors falling out beneath me, and random women running through the halls screaming or whispering to me...

/shudder

Have the res maxed, and all of the other settings on at least high. Besides some slight slowdown on outdoor maps when it rains, the game runs flawlessly.

Only gripe for me would be the melee mechanics...though I've always had a dislike of FP melee, except in the case of the lock-on Covenant Energy Sword from Halo 2.

The melee grew on me after a while, actually.  Once I started to learn the "combos" for the various weapons and how to use them to keep an opponent on his ass, rather than just button-mashing, it became much more satisfying.

I also played a firearms-only character for a while, and once I'd finished the game once that way, I was happy to go back to melee and not have to worry about buying ammo any more.   :wink:

Did you ever get the feeling that ranged combat worked far better for the prancy Clans? I'm playing a Toreador at the moment and while i tried to build a melee one (poet's shirt + fireaxe), after a while i promptly restarted and took up a shotgun. It seems the stat allocation seems to benefit them better.

How effective are firearms later in the game?

 - meg

Later on there are times where firearms are a better solution than melee, but it will depend on the rest of your build, and how you fight.

The pain in the ass sewer section (you'll know it when you see it) is easy with solid firearms skill.

Various 'large room with lots of human opponents' scenarios are good with firearms, though only really if you have crowd control powers (domination/dementation - use possession/beserk/bedlam a few times then snipe away), and these rooms can alternatively be passed with obfuscation, celerity, or just very good melee.

One or two bosses also exist which firearms work well against (as either they are hard to close on, or are melee based and easy to prevent closing on you).

I'd certainly suggest firearms skill for a malk or vent, wouldn't bother on brujah & gangrel, all the others YMMV.

I've so far found as a Nosferatu that whether firearms or melee is better is entirely situation dependent, not only on the enemy, but also on what weapons you have available. Against vampires, fiends and other supernatural baddies, you are better off with blades like the knife or fire axe, especially if you get potence. The Tzimice was one of those I tried to take down with firearms (my shotgun) and found myself swarmed over with fiends. When I switched to the knife, I got him. That sewer section I did with knife and fire axe almost exclusively. Against the human tong, I'm finding much better results using firearms, which may be just because I have the .44 magnum now. 2 shots, DEAD. I also find that Animalism 3, the Spectral Wolf, is a one-shot kill on all but the bosses and bigger stuff.

I'm sure as a less feral clan, like the Ventrue or Toreador, firearms works much better.

Despite all the bugs, and there are more than enough even with the 1.2 patch, this is easily one of the best RPG's ever.

In regards to which skills go best with which clans, it really boils down to which skills your disciplines complement.  For example, Celerity goes well with ranged because it lets you dodge bullets as long as you're at range, and dance out of the way of big melee-heavy bosses.  Auspex also goes well with ranged because it buffs Perception (Auspex + Firearms = Ranged feat of 10+ = lots of death).  On the other hand, disciplines like Protean and Potence only work with melee skills, and some of the crowd-control disciplines (like Presence and Purge) only work at close range, so melee goes well with those.  Tremere with a melee weapon is lethal because between Blood Strike and a good blade, you can handle absolutely anything (and your Ranged feat doesn't affect your ranged disciplines at all, so you can ignore it).  It's all about getting your abilities to complement each other.

Ventrue + firearms seems like an obvious choice, but I'm using melee so far with my Ventrue and it's working pretty well.  My logic is that most of my Domination powers work at range, so I can use those to take care of inaccessible enemies, and Presence+Fortitude are at their best in a melee.

Damnit, I should have chosen Toredor....I think they get the most versatile buffs, but I went Ventrue....

Somehow, I don't ever see myself using Dominate in conversations....I value my blood too much.

And another thing....was anyone else confused at first with the whole Jeanette/Theresa/Tourette(??) thing?

****Spoiler****


When I first got into the club and the girls were arguing upstairs, I did think it was odd that I could not find Jeanette up there, but I chalked it up to bad design.

Then, once you go back and "they" are "arguing", and the model is looking all around during the conversation, I just assumed that was a bug, and that I was supposed to see the Jeanette model arguing from the bathroom or something....

It makes sense I guess, I just wish they had developed this part of the story better

**** End Spoiler ****

You're not supposed to be able to see them during that conversation.  You don't see them until after the door slams, indicating that Jeannette has locked herself in the bathroom.

If you noclipped through a wall in that scene to see Therese, don't complain that the game's script didn't take your cheating into account.   :wink:

Naw I know....just that after I listened to that, I went looking for Jeanette...and of course she was nowhere to be found.

**** Spoiler ****

Actually, what I was alluding to is that the explanation that Jeanette and Therese are the Same Person is not properly fleshed out.

No, I did not noclip...cheating is for losers.

Either my game is bugged, or my explanation is correct; they're the same person. The quest log kinda points towards this....

"Sibling Rivalry
You managed to talk the Jeanette personality into 'killing' the Therese personality.  Jeanette has put word out with Tung that the feud is off."

In Retrospect, I kinda wish I did not go the "pick up Jeanette" route....missed out on 2 quests...and I doubt this will really ever pan out into anything interesting.

**** /Spoiler ****

I liked how the T/J thing wasn't put completely on a plate at the end (though it would have been nice if it wasn't quite so obvious from listening to the argument just what was going on).

The ambiguity of how much is down to T/J being insane, and how much is based on vampire/magic oddness was a good decision imo.

What I'm finding not so good, is the limited dialogue options whenever you talk to the major characters.

Too often I'm finding the options basically boil down to...

1. Up the Camarilla!!!
2. Up the Anarchs!!!

When, I'd much prefer something on the lines of...

3. WHOOO! I'm a batshit Malkavian who'll do whatever I damn well like!!1!

Espeically since  I'm starting to assume no real choice is actually made until that age old rpg staple, 'the stone cold obvious decision point alluded to by every third character you meet in the game but which doesn't arrive until precisely 30 minutes from the end'.

If you pick the right ending - you can get this.

I saw the Jeanette/Therese thing from the first conversation, but that didn't ruin my enjoyment of it. The fact that Therese has the different colored eyeballs common to Malkavians told me she was batshit insane. I couldn't tell which one I lusted after more, the hot, big-breasted chick in the schoolgirl outfit with passive-aggressive tendencies, or the wrapped tight glasses-wearing chick with the big-bosoms. I chose the business chick, so go figure. I still think VV is hotter.

Of course, the fact that every woman under the age of 90 in the game is hotter than hell is a bit purient. But I'm enjoying the fact that the M rating is on this game.

Let's face it, most of the big story points are telegraphed a mile away. The Ankaran Sarcophagus was a dead giveaway the minute I heard about it. I still think it's one of the better RPG's ever.

I stopped playing this thing the fourth time I went through the ghost house.

See, I have a problem with picking characters.  It's an illness.  The RPGI if you will.

I really want to pick it back up again, but I can't help stopping and making new characters.  Save me Jebus.

You're missing out on some great gaming goodness.

Ah see? I missed out on all the context clues, because I assumed what I thought was odd was due to either bad design or bugs...

I guess it's so weird, it's good..

There is also the fact that as a Malkavian (which was what i played the first time through) you refer to her as the daughter of Janus, the Roman two-faced god.

But Haemish, the real question is, did you open the box?

 - meg

p.s.
Oh and thanks for the gun info guys. The first time i played it, my char was all brawl which made feeding really easy, and between the Malkavian's Vision of Death & Hysteria, crowd-control was not really a problem, but i figured i could improve on the two bits which i trouble with; those bloody sewers (which i ran/stealthed throught the first time) and *spoiler* Ming Xao. She just did not take damage from brawl. Gah.

I went full firearms with pretty much all of em. The Lassiter (Uzi) is just ridiculously powerful.

*Semi-Spoiler*
Pick up the flame thrower as soon as you can. It wipes out the Tzimisce in nothing flat as well as ending Grunfeld Bach in record time. Also helps keep the roaming vamps at the Sheriff fight off ya.

Ming Xiao is a fucking bitch.  Regardless of whether you're with her or against her.

In practice the flame thrower is almost always the best ranged weapon for all occaisions. Downside is the cost of the ammo.

Also, as far as I can tell, your ranged feat does not affect the flamethrower in any way.

Cost of the ammo is all but immaterial towards the end of the game, especially if you've been smart with your money.  The fact that you can only hold two tanks of it is tough, though.  I'd happily pay for a hundred tanks of that stuff if I could - it'd make the final boss fights ridiculously easy.  (Which is probably why they limit you to two tanks.  They're not stupid.)

I know there are some 3rd party fixes out there for skipping the intro and such. I wish they made a patch to skip though it though so I was all official like and such.

I enjoyed stealth killing people so much. Or stealth biting.

Next game I might have to make a katana using Malk. Because the Malk is the most fun.

** Look!  Salmon!

"Yes... must kill salmon!"

Arise, chicken!

So I'm trying to get a friend of mine to play this game, because he never did and I've been replaying it recently.  Unfortunately, he has Vista and it has a very strange tendency to, once the game is started up, give him an "Input Not Recognized" error on his monitor.  Now, the game is running, you can see stuff, you can play, except that this box is floating around the screen blocking your view.

He tried a few things to fix it but came up empty handed.  Has anyone else tried running this on Vista and had problems?  Maybe the problem is familiar to people?

That sounds more like some sort of funky driver problem than like something wrong with the game itself.

Hmm. I\ve had that problem with a couple of games on XP. The way I ended up fixing it was to go to the next lower resolution.

Oh, I have a good guess as to what it is; the game is trying to play at a resolution the desktop monitor config files aren't used to. Probably best to figure out if you have the right .inf files for the monitor installed, and if you do, then switch the resolution for the game to something the monitor does support.

He's likely playing on a widescreen monior. I had a bugger of a time configuring it for a 1680 x 1050 monitor the first time. I don't remember all of the details, but I know there were input errors involved. I think I actually found a utility at one of the widescreen sites that configured the game res for you.

I used the utility; its included on the latest fan patch.

I just wanted to say that i dled this game from steam yesterday for the first time and spent about eight hours playing a malkavian and last night i had the most fucked up dreams EVER. 

Thanks for the tips all, it's probably the resolution thing.  He tried checking drivers, that isn't it.  I'll give him a call and tell him to try that.

I played through most recently as a Toreador.  10 Persuasion, 9 Seduction, lots of melee with 5 Celerity.

Holy shit.

Celerity is amazing.  At rank 5 you can actually see bullets in the air and step around them.  The only annoying part is that you still feed at normal speed which, from Celerity perspective, is very slow.  Pain in the butt if you're stacking it a bunch of times (which I always did- grab a human to feed, pop Celerity 5 times, drain back to full blood).

Also pretty nice having a blood doll in every city.

What's also fun is to take the little character generation quiz at the beginning and answer the questions for yourself, see what clan you'd end up in.  I am, to my surprise and enjoyment, a Gangrel.  I thought I'd be a Nosferatu or Malkavian, but I guess my loner tendencies lean me more toward being a badass with fucking claws.

I perfectly called the two friends I had take the quiz- the one playing it is a Brujah, his fiance is a Toreador.

My favorite is still the ventrue. Domination in dialogues and upgrade it for combat. Max out Fortitude and Firearms + Perception, we're all set for combat. Just invest 2 points in Finances to keep the blood pack supply topped up at discount rates.

You guys are making me want to reinstall and replay this game. I think after I finish the Witcher (finally) I just might do that.

I hated the combat system, here's a quick fix:

* http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm and download RADTools.exe
* Open up Explorer to your install directory of The Witcher "C:\Program Files\The Witcher\Data\"
* Then watch any of the cs_sex_*.bik
* Uninstall game, and go play Bloodlines

;)

The combat is hard to get used to. However, when you get more powerful it is awesome to be surrounded by enemies who you are dismembering while also lighting them on fire or shoving them into walls.

Just noticed Direct to Drive has it at $14.95 right now. If you never played it. Now's your chance.

It was $9.99 on steam a while ago. I think it's still cheap. Eh, $19.99.

Still would rather get it on Steam than D2D.

In Vista 64, Bloodlines reports less than 15MB of memory available. Does not work. Sigh.

Run it in compatibility mode, SP2.